The African National Congress (ANC) remembers its late struggle veteran, Adolphus Boy Mvemve, not as victim, but as a victor.

Speaking at his Special Official Provincial Funeral Service and reburial ceremony, ANC Secretary-General, Fikile Mblula said his faith in freedom was stronger than fear.

The apartheid regime assassinated the 43-year-old Mvemve, on the 12th of February 1974, with a parcel bomb in Lusaka, Zambia in a cross-border terrorism act.

The Johannesburg City Hall was packed to capacity by mourners attending Mvemve’s official funeral service and reburial ceremony.

Mvemve was one of the many anti-apartheid activists, who died in exile. He left the country in 1963 soon after tying the knot.

“It is a bittersweet event in the sense that only two members of the family managed to attend his funeral in 1974 and I think that was one of the most traumatic experiences that all of us went through,” says Mvemve’s family member, Mandla Mlambo.

Today, we finally laid to rest a liberation hero of our movement in a reburial
ceremony at Westpark Cemetery, honouring Comrade Adolphus Mvemve’s lifelong commitment to freedom and equality.

May his courage continue to inspire future generations.

Rest in peace, cde Mvemve🕊️… pic.twitter.com/8ovXXvxtNm

— ANC – African National Congress (@MYANC) June 15, 2025

Mvemve’s grave in Lusaka, Zambia was located by the Missing Persons Task Team, in November 2023 and thereafter the repatriation of his mortal remains started.

Mbalula says his official funeral and reburial ceremony, on the eve of the Youth Day commemoration, is befitting.

A book; a bomb instantly stole his life at 43. His hands, which had held the hopes of so many, were taken. His face which had smiled in defiance, was silenced, yet his death was not a surrender; it was an indictment of the brutality he had spent his life resisting.

According to the authorities the repatriation of the mortal remains is an indication that the democratic government is slowly making headway in the painful exercise of bringing back the remains of those who perished outside the country.

“It is regrettable that he, and a number of others, could not return to their country alive to witness and enjoy the fruits of their sacrificial labour. It is a measure of moral triumph that we are finally reclaiming the mortal remains of one of our own; our brother in struggle who died for a cause that is just. We should all take heart from the fact that his mortal remains return to a free country. This itself, is a validation of inherent mobility of the cause which they espoused during their life time” says Acting Gauteng Premier, Tasneem Motara.

Mvemve was also posthumously honoured with a Presidential Award, the Order of Ikhamanga, for his acts of bravery.